Azure: Awakening
by Siren's Voice
Summary: Upon awakening in the World That Never Was, Roxas is led by a dangerous stranger determined to debase his heart and devour it. Super dark...Akuroku.


**Axel**

His eyes held the answer to every question I'd ever asked, would ask, and even those I would never dare to ask. Their color was so deep, so true, so filled with the nebulousness of the seas and the infiniteness of the skies, I don't think I could name it, but if I could even come close it naming it, I think it would be called "azure". The omnificent eyes held mine with an immutable fierce, yet flickering gaze from the boyish face; high, full cheekbones and an effeminate, yet determined jaw, of the only person whose heart I had ever really wanted.

I wanted to possess it entirely. But, what is it to have a heart? Can we truly possess one by the mere act of claiming it? For some time, I had been completely convinced that if I possessed his heart, then I would have every answer I had ever needed. Maybe the only question I need answered was the whereabouts of my own heart. Had I ever even had one? It is possible to be born without one?

Is it possible that I had one when I was somebody? Because now, I was a nobody. If I ever had been somebody…well, that somebody probably no longer exists because I sure don't remember him. But he, of the azure eyes, surely, he had one still. I know he did, because I had seen the flashing pulses of a heart beat undulating like a reflection of lighting upon the storm clouds of his soul, could see the tempest brewing from within the endless abyss of his eyes.

I was greedy. I was hungry. I wanted it, craved it like I was under a spell of bloodlust. I wanted to make his heart my own. My apathy and boredom with my supposed existence were replaced with a burning need. That revolutionary new ideal suddenly consumed my every thought, parasitically choking out previous notions of becoming somebody or even surviving. Food, drink, flesh; vices became inconsequential as they would never satiate my desire until I possessed that dire, crucial need; his heart.

The boy with the azure eyes was new, withdrawn and defensive, but with a heart of pure innocence nestled into his core. I could see it, glimmering and golden, laying beneath the dark shrouds of distrust and misery, echoing from the hollows of his chest. It thudded softly, muffled through the labyrinth fraught with traps, but the gateway to it was through the crystalline blue darkness of his eyes. They were narrowed now, with skepticism, but I knew just how easily I would be able to make them open wide. Unfortunately, that threshold was the biggest danger; I could already feel myself being pulled down into the abyss, where I was certain to drown in the rhythmic tides. My own chest seemed to ring with answering echoes of an emotion where that I had once understood, but could no longer remember quite what it was.

It wasn't lust. _That_ I could still feel, and did. Something about innocence always makes me want to claw at it and swallow it and pound it into oblivion. The ignition sparked by this lust was immediate and perilous, my body reacted, even though I couldn't, with the ache to force my way into his body until we breathed in the same inhale and let out the same shuddering, explosive exhale because our bodies were crushed with the same maddening pressure. My body would be so tightly sheathed within his that we would assimilate into oneness. I craved for the liquid flame of lust to poison and color my veins. It was the dark mirror of that other feeling, the one called… Trying to recall even the name nauseated me. It heaved within me, excruciating, until I wanted to vomit it out as a disease and retch it out onto the pristine marble floors of Castle Oblivion, so I quelled the echoes into silence,

Instead, he was greeted with a jovial, charismatic smile, filled with only some of the sarcasm and none of the malice within me; a perfect mask to wear until the beast within me had lodged its talons into the fleshy pulp of his heart, until it was mine to devour. He was distrusting, but drawn to the hint of empathy that I had made sure to cast off; the anglerfish's lantern. I knew that he would be utterly helpless to resist. What I didn't know then was that I would also end up helpless to keep from drowning. Looking into his eyes was like suicide by jumping into the Arctic Ocean. One's first thought is not of death, but that a plunge into the depths might be an awakening of icy agony that pierces straight through the numbness. However, you are instead pulled by a sleepy paralysis into death. Instead of pain, one is merely confronted with a drowsy numbness that quickly seeps into one's veins and lulls you to drift forever in the frigid seas of death. Already, the temptation to give up my sanity and drift in the azure was disturbing in strength.

In the meantime, however, my greedy determination enabled me to regain my sanity and maintain my jaunty mask. I was already beginning to calculate the intimate details of a plan to secure his prized heart. I would have to lay siege to it, embracing it wholly until he was infuriated and trapped, then break it and mend it back together a few times before I could finally slip in through the jagged cracks and pillage the juicy sweet remnants. It also involved sating my lust for his flesh. Multiple times. The best way to begin was to gain his trust through empathy and a fun romp at light friendship, which would quickly transform into a hot and hard seduction. Seduction, even of the most malicious sort, would be innocent compared to the end that I had in mind or him. By the time that I would be ready to claim my final reward, he would already have surrendered many times and would be begging me to take it from him just so that the aching inside him would cease. I was going to break his mind, his heart, and, most enjoyably, his body, until he was insane for me. Then, when it was completely mine, I would take his heart. With careful calculation, it would be ridiculously simple; the hardest part would be doing it without tearing his heart asunder. I wanted every part of it.

**Roxas**

Like a hellish phantom in the night, he came out of the darkness all long limbs and spiky crimson hair that looked almost like fire that had been frozen and fragmented into jagged shards. His eyes were so feline, awful and beautiful, they terrified me. Their hue was an acidic green so intense that when he stared into my eyes, it was if a white-hot poker had been thrust into my chest and was searing along a path that pierced its way through my body. As if mocking that agony, he had a tattooed a single tear drop onto each sharp cheekbone. His expression echoed their sentiment; at once amused and calculating.

At that instant, I would have ripped my still-beating heart out of my chest and presented it to him, or torn off my clothes and done unspeakable acts for his sake. The compulsion to submit was too strong; better to burn out quickly then be condemned to the grey chill I felt upon my awakening in this cold, desolate place. I looked up his impossibly long sinewy body into his angular face, ready to admit resignation to whatever fate he had in mind for me.

I felt a pale, golden light pulse from somewhere within me. Then, I knew that I had something precious, something meaningful and worth protecting inside of me. I recoiled from the rakish stranger in front of me, now defensive and determined to live. I stared up at him, my eyes wary and steelcold, and then opened my mouth to speak.

"Who are you?" I spat out the words as if they were shrapnel.

"Who are _you_?" His response was an infuriating reiteration of mine. Shouldn't you know? You showed up here because I did, right? You didn't just happen to find me on the asphalt. Right?

Yet, I had no answer. I'm sure that I have or had a name, but it had somehow been deleted from my memory as if it had never existed. Likewise, any image what I looked like was gone. If I touched my face, would I find that my nose, lips, and cheekbone would be so unfamiliar as to be grotesque? I met that thought with utter apathy, calmly swallowed as if to restrain the bile that that should have been rising in my throat, and looked up at him in perfect silence. "Well, kiddo, it seems you've got a real problemo. You should probably come with me."

He held his hand out and I stared at it, stupidly, for a minute, then realized what it was for and allowed him to pull me from the slick asphalt to my feet. I stumbled forward, tripping headlong into his chest. My face awkwardly pressed against the leathery material of his long coat and its biting cold zipper. I immediately shoved off and uprighted myself, falling into stride behind him as he began to walk away. He raised his hand and in front of us an ovular well of darkness came into being, reflective and seething. I froze for a moment, then took a step backwards as he stepped towards it, obvious in his intent to disappear into it. The darkness, which shunted all light away, quivered like a pool of ink and pulsed to embrace him.

I felt my gorge rise into my throat, for real this time, my muscles clenching against the nausea that threatened to overwhelm me. A small whine escaped from my vocal chords as the revulsion crept up the skin of my neck, a sinking liquid cold like mercury pervading my prickling flesh.

The man (I suppose, although his face couldn't have been more than 23 years old), hesitated at the sound and turned towards me, inclining his head. His expression smacked of sympathy and I was at once ashamed of the noise. I gritted my teeth, swallowed down the nausea, and fixed him with a pernicious glare, daring him to voice pity for me.

"Look, kid, it's called a portal. I get that it's kinda freaky looking, but it's going to get us where we need to go. Got it?" He said, quirking an eyebrow at me. Those damn radioactive green eyes were piercing me again, this time with a concern that I couldn't be certain was not false.

"Where are we going?'

"Stop asking questions. Trust me when I say you'd rather not know the answers anyway. Believe me. By the way, the name is Axel. A–x-e-l. Get it memorized and quick."

Axel. _Axel_. I was staring at him stupidly again. I closed my mouth and nodded once, sharply. He turned back towards the looming portal, writhing with darkness, and stepped into it. I followed as quickly as possible; if I started thinking about the darkness, I was going to vomit.


End file.
